Day 2: City Overview & Edinburgh Castle

Posted: October 2015

I started my morning with a proper breakfast at the pub connected to the Grassmarket Hotel called Biddy Mulligans. It is an Irish-styled pub. For breakfast I selected the Irish Fry - Very similar to a standard Scottish or English full breakfast. It came with scrambled eggs, mushrooms, tomato, sausages, bacon (which to Americans we would call this 'Canadian Bacon'), white pudding, beans and fry bread (a buttery pan fried slice of a flatbread-like treat). I forgot to move my morning dose of Sudafed before taking this photo - so please ignore. However, it was almost the more critical part of my breakfast.

From there, I decided to take part in the 'touristy' attraction of the city sightseeing tour buses that are hop-on-hop-off. For only $33 USD, I was able to purchase a 48-hr ticket that is good for all 4 bus tours they offer which gives me access to the majority of the city. I took advantage upon boarding by sitting through the full tour of the city to get the 'lay of the land'. I would not have opted for this form of transportation, however I had to salvage any energy I could muster up from my nasty cold for aggressive sightseeing. Below are some images from the tour...

The key attraction I spent my afternoon was at Edinburgh Castle. What a delight! The views from the castle over the city were breathtakingly impressive. Majority of the exhibits of the castle are focused on telling the military history of Scotland. I also visited their Prisoner's exhibit as well as the Royal Apartments, Crowned Jewels, and the War Memorial (touching experience). For a late lunch, I opted for a lighter fair of a scone with clotted cream, jam, fruit and tea. The clotted cream was wonderful. If you haven't had clotted cream before, or may have had a lighter/fluffier version of it (almost like whipped cream) the cream served at the cafe at the castle was different than I expected but absolutely loved. It was a dense texture like a cold butter, but had a light and creamy taste which was perfect with the butter scone and fruit jam. I am so happy to be in a country that regularly serves tea and scones - a country after my own heart!

Here are a few photos of my journey at the Edinburgh Castle.

I finished my evening with another tour of the city going out to the sea where the Royal Britannia is docked. I then returned to the hotel for a savory meal of fish and chips before settling into my room for the night. Time for a good night's rest for a long day of adventures tomorrow. Until then, goodnight.